On Mon, 3 Jun 2002, Joanne Jahr wrote:
> Forgive the truly stupid question, but I can't find an explanation
> anywhere....mostly, I believe, because I don't know what question to
> ask or how to phrase it.  An example of my bewilderment is below. Why
> do these =20s show up, what do they mean AND how can one format a
> message so they don't appear when a message is posted?

It ain't a stupid question.  Generally you get those from sytems which
have contrent transfer encoding "quoted/printable" (Novel GroupWise springs
immediately to mind). The =20 (an the = and the end of "wrapped" lines)
are code which is invisable within the system the persom is using, but
you aren't using that system so you can see it. (Someone correct me if
i'm wrong,  =20 equals  the return/enter key (CR/LF)).

If you've subscribers who use "quoted/printable", and you want to get rid
of the irritating artifacts on your list, the only reliable method that I
know of is to edit the postings (telling the subscriber to change his
settings will likely do no good as most of the systems which I have
encountered which use this have it as a feature which can be changed only
by the sys.admin., the user has no choice (well, it is a user selected
choice available in some MS, and other, products, but most folk (in my
experience) who use it do so because they are stuck with it, only the
sys.admin. can change it).     Douglas [log in to unmask]